The Champions League Gameweek 7 made its highly anticipated return after a month, and it certainly lived up to the hype. Fans were treated to an exhilarating display of end-to-end football, with feisty comeback victories and the usual suspects securing their expected wins. It also made the League Phase table more chaotic with the last league phase game remaining next week with most teams looking to end in Top-eight or trying to qualify for the play-offs other than the select few who have already qualified.
Let’s take a look at all the action from the Gameweek 7 of the Champions League –
AS Monaco secured a narrow win over Aston Villa at the Louis II Stadium in Monaco.
Monaco dominated the early passage of play and scored inside eight minutes. From a corner being given for the hosts, Thilo Kehrer’s initial header was parried off by Emiliano Martínez but the Argentina goalkeeper could do nothing about the rebound which was pounced on by Wilfried Singo that was headed home. On the other end, Radoslaw Majecki made sure the lead remained intact heading into the break by saving shots from Ollie Watkins and Leon Bailey.
The start of the second half saw chances for both sides, with Villa’s Morgan Rogers firing just wide while Monaco’s Maghnes Akliouche had an effort ruled out for offside. Villa Manager Unai Emery introduced striker Jhon Durán to threaten the Monaco goal but a solid defensive Monaco backline held on to their solitary goal lead and secured a vital three points.
Aston Villa were dealt a massive blow as a win would have helped them in automatic qualification. With Celtic to visit them next week, their Top-eight finish now looks in jeopardy.
Defending Europa league winners Atalanta produced a five-star performance against SK Sturm Graz at the Bergamo in Italy.
Sturm Graz had an early chance to take the lead when forward Amady Camara narrowly missed the target after latching onto a long ball. But it was all Atalanta after that. In the 12th minute, Charles De Ketelaere’s cross from the right was poorly cleared by the opposition defence, landing at the feet of Lazar Samardži? on the edge of the box.
The Atalanta midfielder found Davide Zappacosta with a precise low pass, who then squared the ball to Mateo Retegui and the Argentine netted to give Atalanta the lead. The two teams went into the break with a 1-0 lead for the hosts.
De Ketelaere thought he had doubled the advantage for Atalanta early in the second half but his close-range strike was chalked off for offside in the buildup. The hosts controlled the possession and Juan Cuadrado hit the post minutes later, before substitute Ademola Lookman was denied twice by Sturm goalkeeper Kjell Scherpen. Atalanta weren’t to be denied again though and Mario Pašali? doubled the lead in the 58th minute with a shot into the roof of the net, converting a teasing cross from Cuadrado, before De Ketelaere added the third five minutes later. The visitors had no response to the Atalanta attack as they continued to pile more misery on the Austrian Champions. De Ketelaere then turned provider for Ademola Lookman in stoppage-time as the striker headed home. Atalanta completed the demolition deep in stoppage-time with Marco Brescianini prodding home from close range after Lookman fizzed past the Sturm Graz defence to pass to the Italian forward in the box.
With this win, Atalanta sit comfortably in fourth spot in the table while SK Sturm Graz languish in the bottom five with no chance left for qualification to the Round of 16.
Forward Julián Alvarez’s inspired performance propelled a 10-man Atlético Madrid to come back and rescue a massive three points against the current German Champions.
The visitors started brightly against the hosts and created opportunities for goals in the early period. Atlético goalkeeper Jan Oblak thwarted efforts from Florian Wirtz and Nathan Tella, after the latter also had a goal ruled out for offside. Things got tricky for the hosts when Pablo Barrios was sent off for a red card offense for his studs up challenge from behind on Jeremie Frimpong in the 23rd minute. With a numerical advantage, the visitors bombed forward with intent and just when it seemed Atlético had done enough to thwart the visitors, Piero Hincapié headed in near post courtesy of Nordi Mukiele’s cross from the right to give Leverkusen the lead.
The hosts emerged in the second half with changed tactics and as the game opened up soon after the restart, they were level. On the counter, Antoine Greizmann launched a long ball forward, with Julián Alvarez latching onto it and even with pressure from Alejandro Grimaldo, he kept his composure and slotted home in the 52nd minute. Buoyed by a noisy Wanda Metropolitano, the hosts defended stoutly. Hincapié was then sent-off for Leverkusen in the 76th minute for a second yellow card offence. With both teams down to ten, Atleti’s winner came in the 90th minute from another long ball pass that caused problems for Edmond Tapsoba, Alvarez took advantage and slotted home past keeper Mat?j Ková? in front of a delirious home crowd.
Leverkusen will now have to wait for their next game to ensure Top-eight qualification while Atlético Madrid sit in third place in the CL League table.
Lille suffered their first defeat of the Champions League at Anfield after impressive performances against Real Madrid, Juventus and Atlético de Madrid.
Liverpool found it hard to break a well-disciplined Lille defence in the early stages but continued to attack. The visitors had a blistering start with their attempt on goal coming inside the first minute. However, the home side controlled proceedings from there on and reaped their reward in the 34th minute with Mohamed Salah netting his 50th European goal for Liverpool when he latched onto a long pass from Curtis Jones after Kostas Tsimikas won the ball inside Liverpool’s half, and then curled a shot around goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier. Salah had another glorious opportunity to double the lead before the break when Luis Díaz’s long Crossfield pass was sublimely brought down by him, he shrugged off a Lille defender but pulled his shot agonizingly wide to the dismay of the home crowd.
The second half started in the same vein and just before the hour-mark, Lille’s evening got worse, defender Aïssa Mandi’s foul on Luis Diaz got him sent-off for a second yellow card offense. Lille were down to ten-men but three minutes later, they restored parity with Jonathan David pouncing on a poor clearance from Tsimikas inside the box. Liverpool quickly regained the lead when a corner was headed out to the edge of the box and Harvey Elliott fired a first time shot that took a big deflection into the net in the 67th minute. Darwin Núñez thought he had scored Liverpool’s third just before added time when he tapped home from a rebound off a Federico Chiesa shot but he was offside and the goal was chalked off. The game ended in a 2-1 win for Liverpool.
Liverpool lead the Champions League table with 21 points, winning all of their seven games while Lille are in 11th place and will have to win their last game to get into the Top-eight places.
Luuk de Jong’s brace helped a 10-man PSV win a nervy game away to Crvena Zvezda at a freezing Stadion Rajko Mitic.
The visitors started with intent early on and got the opener in the 17th minute from Luuk de Jong’s header from an outswinging Joey Veerman’s corner. Six minutes later, PSV got another corner and the result was the same. De Jong powered another header from a Veerman corner-kick. A scintillating first half display from the visitors and they scored a third before half-time. Another corner kick and Red Star could only clear till the edge of the box with defender Ryan Flamingo volleying a thunderous strike into the net.
However, Flamingo’s joy soon turned sour when he received a straight red card five minutes into the second period after he brought down Nemanja Radonji? on the edge of the box as he was the last defender. Red Star felt they had a chance with a numerical advantage and they pulled two goals back as Cherif Ndiaye and Nasser Djiga scored with headers in the 71st and 77nd minutes to induce a nervy finish. But despite heavy pressure in the closing minutes, they couldn’t find an equaliser as PSV held on to all three points.
With this win, PSV Eindhoven moved into 16th place while Crvena Zvezda are more or less out of the competition now.
This was one of the most entertaining fixtures of the Champions League so far. A nine-game thriller where Barcelona showed great fighting spirit and mental resilience to comeback and beat Benfica in the dying stages of the game.
Benfica made a blistering start to the game with left-back Álvaro Carreras crossing for Vangelos Pavlidis in the box to finish for the opening goal inside two minutes. They almost had another a few minutes later, but it was Barça who scored in the 13th minute to tie up the match. Tomás Araújo fouled Alejandro Balde in the area, and Robert Lewandowski stepped up to dispatch the penalty to restore parity. Pavlidis then bagged another in the 22nd minute when Wojciech Szcz?sny rushed out to kick away the long forward ball but collided with his own player Balde, Pavlidis then pounced on the loose ball and tucked it in an open net. Benfica stretched their lead to two goals with Pavlidis scoring his hattrick from the spot-kick in the 30th minute when Muhammed Kerem Aktürkoglu was fouled by Szcz?sny in the box. It looked like Benfica had run away with the game as the two teams went into the break.
However, football and its unpredictable nature always surprises us. Barça’s comeback started with an error from the Benfica goalie Anatoliy Trubin’s attempted long pass went straight to Raphinha who headed from outside the box to make it 4-2. This invigorated the away side but Benfica scored again just three minutes later to extend the lead to 4-2. It was through the Argentine defender Ronald Araújo who diverted a cross from the left into his own goal when trying to clear the danger. However, undeterred Barcelona kept going on and soon scored from an Eric García far post header from a teasing Pedri cross to make it 4-3. Lewandowski converted another penalty to make it 4-4, after Carreras had seemingly bundled over Lamine Yamal in the 77th minute. With the heavy rain beating down in Lisbon and the nerves being stretched to breaking-point, Barcelona conjured up a dramatic late winner from Raphinha on the counter-attack winning the game in incredible fashion. Benfica had Arthur Cabral sent off in the 90+8 minutes for the player’s reaction to a penalty not awarded to his side for a foul on him.
Barcelona made automatic qualification with this win but their defensive issues might worry coach Hansi Flick while Benfica really did push them with their attacking prowess, only losing the game in the closing stages.
Juventus was held to a goalless draw in a lacklustre contest against the Belgium Champions on Tuesday.
The two sides started off cautiously and had only one attempt each in a dull first half, both the shots off target.
The tempo got better after the restart and Brugge produced their best chance to break the deadlock through forward Ferran Jutglà, who nutmegged defender Pierre Kalulu before his low shot went just wide of the left post. Thiago Motta introduced fresh legs in the 66th minute with substitutes Francisco Conceição and Kenan Yildiz coming on. However, nothing much changed in terms of overall play and while Juventus had more possession, they didn’t have many clear-cut chances. Brugge goalkeeper Simon Mignolet stretched to deny midfielder Manuel Locatelli from distance late on but the game ended in a draw.
Juventus have now drawn over half of their 30 games in all competitions this season and are 14th in the table on 12 points while Club Brugge are in 17th place with 11 points.
Stuttgart earned three massive points away from home beating Slovan Bratislava and bolstered their chances of qualifying for the play-offs.
Stuttgart opened the scoring in the 11th minute with Captain Denis Undav squared to winger Jamie Leweling to find the net. Leweling scored his second in the 36th minute when he caught on a loose ball from an Enzo Millot shot that was parried off by goalkeeper Dominik Taká?. Bratislava didn’t show much effort on goal and went into the break two-goal down.
In the second half as well, it was the visitors who dominated possession and looked comfortable on the ball. The hosts brought on changes and in the 85th minute, they pulled one back when Idjessi Medsoko outpaced the Stuttgart defence to prod home. The atmosphere got nervous for the visitors as the home fans were urging Bratislava to get another goal but two minutes later, Stuttgart restored their two-goal lead through substitute Fabian Rieder and killed any hopes of a comeback.
A massive win for Stuttgart who have now given themselves a huge boost for a playoff spot as opposed to their opponents who are in the bottom two with 0 points on board.
A defensively woeful Dortmund lost to hosts Bologna, conceding two goals within a minute to give away their first half lead.
The visitors made a good start, taking the lead through Serhou Guirassy, who converted a penalty in the 15th minute after Emil Holm’s foul on Waldemar Anton. Dortmund looked to be in complete control of the game and heading towards the brink of automatic qualification to the round of 16. The two teams went into the break with a one-goal advantage for the visitors.
However, Borussia Dortmund eased off after the break, giving Bologna a chance to get back in the game which they did in a manic one-minute period after the 70th minute. The equaliser came from substitute Thijs Dallinga who slotted home on the counter attack. Before the Dortmund defence had time to recover, the Italian club struck again with another quick move and a deep cross from Charalambos Lykogiannis which substitute Samuel Iling-Junior finished off to turn the game around. With the Dortmund defence looking even more shaky, Bologna should have added at least two more goals with a couple of great chances, including that of Jens Odgaard.
This is Dortmund’s fourth straight loss in all competitions, the pressure is piling on coach Nuri Sahin as their defensive woes continue.
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